Family & Local History Resource Centre

The KDGS Family & Local History Resource Centre is located on the second floor of the Okanagan Regional Library’s downtown Kelowna Branch. Our partnership with the Library has allowed the Society to offer convenient access to our stellar collection of books, periodicals and maps to the Central Okanagan community and beyond. All KDGS Library Materials are reference only and do not circulate. Our Library features genealogical handbooks and guides for most countries plus many published records such as newspaper vital events, cemetery records, probate records and much more. We subscribe to many different family history journals from across Canada, the US and the UK.   Feel free to peruse these in the comfort of the Library.  Our collection of local histories for Canada, especially, BC, the Prairie Provinces and Ontario is excellent – many of these include vignettes of local families. These books are also very useful for anyone doing historical research and school projects – not just family historians!   Our map cabinet features some rare specialist maps. We continually add to our collection, so visit us often. Make Kelowna your destination research centre:  in one location, you have access to the collections of the KDGS Library and the ORL Library (including a large collection of material on microfilm:  census records, vital events, newspapers and historical BC Directories) and the UBCO Innovation Library (access to historical and newspaper databases) plus just steps away are the Kelowna Museums resources of the Vince Bezeau Military Library & Archives and the Kelowna Public Archives.

DOWNLOAD: The PDF opens in Google Docs. To save a copy to your own computer, select ‘File-Download;’ the List will be sharp and in focus plus you can enlarge it for easier viewing.  TO SEARCH the list by keyword, hold down the “CTRL” key and press the “F” key to bring up a search window; then type in your search word or words (such as author’s surname, topic or word from the title, etc.) and click on “Next” to quickly hunt through this document.  The List is organized by World Region, then Country or Topic and then by Subject within each main listing.  The order of the List follows the order you will find our collection on our shelves at the KDGS Family & Local History Resource Centre.  Materials are cross-indexed; the main entry (where it is shelved) is bolded with all sub-entries in italics. Newly added material is highlighted in yellow.